tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956626159470439381.post3901399426216241699..comments2024-03-05T15:22:45.423+05:30Comments on The Summing Up: Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and screen adaptationSandhya Iyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14447589463166718231noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956626159470439381.post-9537965609079094762011-03-08T00:23:24.325+05:302011-03-08T00:23:24.325+05:30I don't know about Wodehouse, I firmly take is...I don't know about Wodehouse, I firmly take issue about 'The Importance...' having anything to do with sublime. Never mind.Alexandernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956626159470439381.post-61349271634041850082011-03-07T22:34:01.940+05:302011-03-07T22:34:01.940+05:30Alexander, I think I know where you're coming ...Alexander, I think I know where you're coming from. The Importance of Being Earnest is somewhat like a P G Wodehouse book. Frivolous and silly, but also diarmingly charming. And the wit frequently touches the sublime :-)sandhyanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956626159470439381.post-69859043366765032942011-03-03T01:48:45.422+05:302011-03-03T01:48:45.422+05:30I am generally no fan of W. H. Auden's superfi...I am generally no fan of W. H. Auden's superficial descriptions but when he called the play 'verbal opera' he hit the nail on the head, and he hit it hard. Do you know, dearest, how many operas have remained in the standard repertorire because of their libretti? Correct. None.<br /><br />I think of Mozart's 'Cosi fan tutte', a work I am lamentably ignorant of (yet), which, astonishingly, is a pure farce very close to Wilde's play: two naughty girls play double games with two naughty boys. Frankly idiotic. But the music - the music is sublime, on par, if not superior, to many an opera with way better plots. You surrender to the bliss and couldn't care less about the text.<br /><br />'The Importance of Being Earnest', of course, is infinitely superior as a text compared to the libretto of 'Cosi fan tutte'. But the play would have been better as an opera all the same.Alexandernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956626159470439381.post-22811552456108480462011-03-02T09:26:11.452+05:302011-03-02T09:26:11.452+05:30This is the best thing about you Alexander. You ha...This is the best thing about you Alexander. You have no schooled opinion - they are original and provoking. So yes, it has got me thinking<br /><br />I like one dialogue in the play where Lady Brackness says - 'Style largely depends on the way the chin is worn' ... 'London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained 35 for years. - it's obviously a comment on women hiding their age or whatever, and come to think of it, the line - 'remained 35 for years' doesn't quite work on its own, and it's obvious that the irony is a forced for laughs. There are many such instances I agree.sandhyanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956626159470439381.post-42762621328371408462011-03-01T22:45:46.744+05:302011-03-01T22:45:46.744+05:30Clearly, my dear Sandhya, you're not alone: so...Clearly, my dear Sandhya, you're not alone: somebody has marked, rather charmingly I'd say, my review of Wilde's plays on LT as an 'abuse'. Why? Becasue I said that fun for fun's sake makes no more sense than art for art's sake.<br /><br />The dialogue is supremely funny, yes, but it's often surprisingly vacuous. Speaking of funny dialogues and Wilde, the third act of 'Lady Windermere's Fan' alone is thrice more amusing than the three acts of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' taken together; not to say anything about substance behind the fun, which is to my mind the value of any fun.<br /><br />Lady Bracknell steals the show completely; that goes without saying. The two charming fellows, let alone the two stupid girls, are way less interesting. I loved also this one:<br /><br />I would strongly advise you, Mr. Worthing, to try and acquire some relations as soon as possible, and to make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent, of either sex, before the season is quite over.<br /><br />Perhaps I am a bit too harsh on Oscar. There is, of course, no harm if a great dramatist unbends from time to time with a delightful farce (Maugham did it too, at least twice). Poor Oscar didn't have time; mere four years of stage bliss and he was ostracized for life. But I should like to believe that, had he had a decade or so more, he would have come back to writing powerful plays as his previous three before 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. It must be a fault in me but fun only, no matter how delicious, is by far not enough. I want some substance too.Alexandernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956626159470439381.post-30632436910022692022011-03-01T10:10:00.582+05:302011-03-01T10:10:00.582+05:30Majestic let down! Wow Alexander. You're a whi...Majestic let down! Wow Alexander. You're a whistle blower on a play that is generally accepted to be an outright classic. <br /><br />The plot is ofcourse a farce, and somewhat period specific - it's a light-hearted satire on the excesses, hypocrisy and frivolities of the English gentry. You cannot take the incidents seriously - you need a massive suspension of disbelief to enjoy it. But the dialogues are excellent, dont's you think?<br />When Lady Bracknell says - "To lose one parents, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as misfortune. To lose both seems like carelessness"<br />Isn't that supremely funny?sandhyanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956626159470439381.post-1399903341324511132011-02-28T15:12:33.001+05:302011-02-28T15:12:33.001+05:30I don't know about the movie but I have to say...I don't know about the movie but I have to say that I was exceedingly disappointed with the play. It is not just funny - it is much too funny, not to say inane. I don't know why it is often called a comedy when it is actually a pure farce, which in itself is a severe limitation. As Bernard Shaw wisely observed once, 'nothing is more serious than great humour'. And that's what this play painfully lacks: seriousness; I'd have loved at least a bit of it. After 'Lady Windermere's Fan', 'A Woman of No Importance' and 'An Ideal Husband', great comedies all right, 'The Importance of Being Earnest' was as a truly majestic let-down. I don't quite understand how so many people can hail it as Wilde's best play when, in fact, compared to other three, it is by far the worst one. Still, it makes a very amusing read, if forgettable.Alexandernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956626159470439381.post-68710191900435296072010-06-09T16:03:34.742+05:302010-06-09T16:03:34.742+05:30Having seen the play not too recently here at the ...Having seen the play not too recently here at the Guthrie in the Twin Cities, I have always wondered about the screen adaptation. This review certainly makes me want to check it out, if available on Netflix.<br /><br />It must be said that almost always Wodehouse was inspired by what must be Wilde's original method of setting about a plot this way. Not to say Wilde himself may not have been inspired by the Bard from THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. Having said that each of their styles are unique and thoroughly enjoyable.<br /><br />Thanks Sandy for reminding me of this film.Aarkaynehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07963090298570489652noreply@blogger.com